Tennessee Aquarium - March

From our trip to the Tennessee Aquarium in March.

I loved the way the fog was resting on the top of the water!

Mercy and the Piranhas staring at each other. The way the Piranhas sit and stare is so creepy!

A group picture - with the flash (hence the funny looks). I couldn't get enough light without it!

Clayton holding a butterfly.

During a talk at one of the big tanks, the shark kept swimming around the guys in the tank. The guy on the left used the rod to keep the shark at a distance - but it wasn't very far away!

A sign on the wall that I thought was neat. 

Mercy and Cheyenne in front of a tank of small jellies.

In the mirrored jelly room.

My favorite jellies! I love the color and flow of these!

365 in 2015 - End of Week 41

I'm finally getting around to posting last week's pictures when I should be working on this week's instead. Oops. Anyway, I am still working through The Unexpected Everyday. None of these pictures have had any editing done to them. I wanted y'all to see them them straight out of the camera. 

SS 1/125 | f/4.5 | ISO 6400

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Tip 04: Window Lighting

Prompt: Besides candid moments, it's nice to have a portrait of your child at each age.

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This was my first attempt with window lighting (well, our front door actually). I totally blew it out with too high an ISO, but I LOVE Shelby's silly face here! 

SS 1/125 | f/5.6 | ISO 400

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I decided to retry the window lighting challenge a couple days later. I didn't count these in my 365 challenge, but wanted to go ahead and show them here anyway. These were taken inside with the blinds all the way up and close to the window. Paige wouldn't give me a normal smile, so I tried to make her laugh by saying "don't pick your nose" - and she proceeded to stick her finger right there! It made us both laugh!

SS 1/125 | f/5.6 | ISO 400

SS 1/80 | f/5.6 | ISO 400

SS 1/80 | f/5.6 | ISO 400

SS 1/250 | f/5.6 | ISO 200

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Tip 05: Aperture - Shooting Wide Open

Prompt: Capture little details that showcase who your kids are at this age.

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This was my first attempt with Mercy's hands. I used my 18-55mm, and it only goes down to f/3.5. I didn't get that low in this picture because I had zoomed in a little. So I retried with picture below. 

SS 1/100 | f/3.5 | ISO 200

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Shelby's little foot on her bike.

SS 1/250 | f/5.6 | ISO 400

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Tip 06: Metering Mode

Prompt: Capture your kids favorite outdoor activity.

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I totally didn't get metering mode at all. The Unexpected Everyday said to check your camera's manual to see how to change/set it, and I couldn't find mine. I'll have to read up on that more another time. I went ahead and took some pictures of my kids playing outside. This one was one of my favorites!

SS 1/60 | f/5.6 | ISO 200

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Tip 07: Focus on the Eyes

Prompt: Capture your child laughing.

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Paige wasn't feeling great, so she certainly wasn't in the mood to laugh. But I wanted to take a picture of my brown eyed girl anyway.

SS 1/125 | f/13.0 | ISO 200

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Tip 08: Limb Chopping

Prompt: Play peek-a-boo to capture true excitement and joy.

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Paige in the spiderweb climb at Lawrenceville Lawn. I didn't follow the prompt at all, but made sure to not chop off the body at any weird point.

SS 1/30 | f/3.5 | ISO 200

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Tip 09: Custom White Balance

Prompt: Capture the quiet peaceful moments while your child sleeps.

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Once again I didn't follow the prompts. I also didn't quite get how to adjust my white balance as well as I hope to. My missing manual would help me figure it out, but I need to find it first. I did take it off auto, and changed it to the different settings I was in. This and metering mode are two I'm going to wait to read more about later (after this challenge is over).

SS 1/30 | f/5.6 | ISO 400

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Tip 10: Reading a histogram

Prompt: Photograph your kids hands at work. 

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Cheyenne at Babyland General Hospital in Cleveland. I picked this picture as my one for October 10th because of the histogram. I didn't know how to show it on here without taking a picture of it on my computer and I didn't feel like doing that. But it was in the good range described in The Unexpected Everyday, and I liked the way it looked. :-)

Park Hopping: Rolater Park

Back in July Bethany and I went on first long park day trip (that ended up being the only long one). We headed up to Rolater Park in Cave Spring, Georgia. It looked like a neat little place with a cave and a creek. We weren't sure what to really expect, but headed there anyway! When we first pulled up, we saw a very neat natural swimming pool. It was fed by the creek that came from the spring. I wished we had brought our swimming things to do that as well! Anyway, we stopped and ate our lunch at the pavilion before meeting up with another friend from church who lives nearby. 

The fresh spring water. We all filled up our water bottles, but my kids and I didn't care for the sulfur taste that usually accompanies spring water.

Shelby and Kyle feeding the fish in one section of the creek. This area was directly below the fresh spring and was off limits for getting in. There were a ton of fish in it and food to feed them!

The crew before heading into the cave. 

Inside the cave - everyone was trying not to get muddy (surprisingly enough)!

Sophia, Shelby, and Paige in the cave.

The crew in the water. They had fun splashing up and down from one end to the other!

Cheyenne and Keira eyeing everyone else's antics.

Kyle, Paige, and Sophia figuring out how best to jump in from the little bridge.

Mercy Rose on the bridge.

Having fun for a group picture!

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Click here to see Bethany's post on this trip!

Fascination with Patrick

At Mom and Dad's house on July 3rd, everyone was fascinated with baby Patrick!

Sweet boy! 

Shelby got a chance to hold Patrick (with a little help).

Paige loved holding Patrick (and asks regularly now if she can)!

Cheyenne holding Patrick.

Mercy wanted to take Patrick's picture just like everyone else was doing! 

Park Hopping: Lawrenceville Lawn

On June 29th, as one of our park hopping trips, Bethany and I took the kids to Lawrenceville Lawn. Even though we went earlier in the morning, it was quite hot as the playground is not shaded. The kids still had a great time though!

Shelby on the merry-go-round.

Cheyenne climbing on the outside of the playground.

Paige on the merry-go-round.

Shelby on the spiderweb climb.

All the kiddos (except Patrick of course) on the spiderweb climb.

Paige on the top of the spiderweb climb.

Paige

Peek-a-boo! (Cheyenne)

Clayton taking a short rest on the slide.

Cheyenne climbing up the slide.

Mercy going down the slide!

Silly Shelby!

Patrick

Mercy holding "Day-den's" hand.

The whole crowd...

...getting wet!

Bethany re-enacting getting my keys out of the water. I had thrown my keychain over my shoulder and when I bent over near the fountain, it fell in. Sadly it was a partially damaged keyless entry, that was fully damaged after it's contact with the water!